Shimmerbreeze's Meetings
by Chaos Princess Cyclone
Summary: Shimmerbreeze is a beautiful cat. Toms trip over her heels on every patrol she goes on, and they beg to share prey with her. But what happens when she finds interest in a tom - that doesn't belong to her clan?
1. Thunderclan Cats

**ALLEGIANCES **

THUNDERCLAN

**Leader **

Broadstar- wide-shouldered black and gray tabby tom with a scar running down his flank

**Deputy **

Mattedpelt – black she cat with matted fur

**Medicine Cat**

Oakshade – longhaired brown tom

**Warriors **

Maplewhisker – lithe ginger she-cat

LIGHTPAW

Leaplegs – small tabby tom with unusually strong hindlegs

Grassfoot – blue-gray tom born outside of nursery in the forest

Poppymoon – pinkish orange she-cat with brilliant green eyes

CHERRYPAW

Tumbleflight – clumsy black and gray tom

MOSSPAW

Shimmerbreeze – beautiful silver marbled and white tabby she-cat

CHEETAHPAW

Smokefeather – black tom with a glossy pelt, the only cat in ThunderClan who knows how to swim

Wolfclaw – large gray tom with large claws and a vicious bite

TIGERPAW

Badgerscar – she-cat with badger-like markings on face and scar from a badger on ear

LIONPAW

**Queens**

Amberfern – amber she-cat with blue eyes (mother of Flamekit, Foxkit, and Berrykit)

Violetflower – gray she-cat with green eyes (mother of Weedkit, Icekit, and Meltkit)

**Apprentices**

Mosspaw – gray she-cat with often tangled fur

Lightpaw – ginger she-cat

Cherrypaw – ginger she-cat with a red tail

Lionpaw – golden tom cat with fluffy neck fur

Tigerpaw – black striped ginger tom

Cheetahpaw – yellow she-cat with black spots all over body

**Elders**

Swallowtail – white bellied ginger she-cat; the oldest cat in ThunderClan


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The lush green leaves of the mighty trees swiveled in the new-leaf breeze. Slim dapples of light flooded the forest floor, putting a juicy vole in the spotlight.

Shimmerbreeze crept forward, her hunter's crouch perfect. Her hindlegs tingled. She was going to leap. The vole stared up from its food, glaring off into the direction of Shimmerbreeze. _But I haven't made a sound! _she thought angrily. The prey turned its attention back down toward its meal again, nibbling around the leaf. _Now's my chance! _She sprang forward.

"SHIMMERBREEZE!" meowed a black tom.

The vole scurried away into the undergrowth. He had startled it with his scent _and_ by yowling her name.

"What now, Smokefeather? Can I not feed the Clan like every other she-cat in this forest?" Shimmerbreeze snapped furiously. A hint of a growl began in her throat.

"Oh, sorry, Shimmerbreeze. I was just wondering if you wanted me to show you how to swim and catch fish."

_Mouse-brain!_ "I am not a RiverClan fish-face, and neither are you. If cats these days let me hunt in the forest, we wouldn't need fish."

Smokefeather recoiled, and looked genuinely hurt. Shimmerbreeze sighed. "Fine," she muttered. "We'll go fishing by the river."

Smokefeather was light on his paws the whole trek to the flowing river. Since the thaw, the river had grown inches in depth and rich in prey.

"First," Smokefeather meowed enthusiastically. "You have to wade into the shallow section of the river."

_Of course! What foolish cat didn't know that?_ Shimmerbreeze kept a friendly sparkle in her eye. She didn't want everyone to know EVERYTHING that she thought.

She dipped into the chilly water and shivered a little. Smokefeather instantly sprang into the river and nuzzled against her pelt. _Toms!_

"Now what?" Shimmerbreeze mewed.

"Start to go out deeper slowly. Then start padding your hindlegs and forepaws. It's like running. Remember that the current is stronger than it looks." At his final instruction, she gradually waded into the chilling river. Then she began to move her legs back and forth, visualizing herself striding in the forest, many trees a streak of brown and green.

When she snapped back into reality, she saw that she was swimming faster than the opposing current! "Excellent!" Smokefeather praised. "A natural. Look out, RiverClan!"

A _mrrow _of satisfaction escaped her mouth. Yet another skill she had mastered! "Okay, now you can start fishing. You see that salmon over there?" Smokefeather flicked his tail to a gray fish swimming upstream. "Stretch out your foreclaws and knock it out of the water. It will die on its own by not being in the water."

Shimmerbreeze nodded, and commenced stroking faster. _Almost there!_

She swiped her paw, missing the salmon by a whisker. The fish's pace quickened, and so did Shimmerbreeze's. She attempted to fly it out of the water, and the second time she managed to with one blow of her drenched paw. "I did it!" she yowled in triumph.

Smokefeather looked happy, but then his expression quickly faded. "What is it?" she questioned.

"Yeah, what is it? Cat's got your tongue, warrior? What are you doing in our territory? Didn't your brute of a leader tell his cats to stay on their territory?" came a voice from behind Shimmerbreeze. She leaped out of the raging river and turned her head towards the sound. _A RiverClan patrol!_

The patrol consisted of four warriors. Shimmerbreeze's gaze flickered to a stocky young apprentice, who, although small, seemed dangerous. This confrontation would clearly end in a battle, so she strategized in her head quickly which cats she would take on. She would leave the two easier opponents for Smokefeather. Her eyes sparkled with mischief at the thought.

Her muscles tensed waiting for a move being made by the opposite sides' warriors, and, when she received none, she made her own.

She yowled in defiance, and charged through the current of the river towards RiverClan territory.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Shimmerbreeze bounded up the bank, Smokefeather flanking her. A twitch of her tail told Smokefeather to attack.

Shimmerbreeze lunged towards a gray she-cat, claws outstretched. The she-cat yowled in pain, and slid beneath Shimmerbreeze's body. Just as the gray warrior turned around, Shimmerbreeze was already running towards her, claws still unsheathed. She quickly charged the center of the she-cat, and then spun around to rake her flank. The warrior went crashing through some bushes in the direction of the RiverClan camp.

She didn't have much time to celebrate her victory, though, for a burly beige tom came straight for her. With a moment's notice, Shimmerbreeze slipped out of the way and bent down to nip the tom's hindleg. He shrieked in agony and collapsed on the ground. _Too easy!_ She thought victoriously.

To give him a scar to remember her with, Shimmerbreeze strut to the pathetic heap on the ground. She crouched down to claw at his pelt, but before she could, the massive warrior shot up and tackled her to the ground.

Surprised, Shimmerbreeze went limp. Then she regained her common sense and began attacking his soft underbelly with furious strikes with her hindlegs. The tom winced, but held his ground. But very soon, the torture became too much to bear and he lost strength for a kittenstep of time. In that heartbeat, she propelled her hindlegs with thrice the power before, and the tom went crashing to the ground foxlengths away.

However much he groaned, the tom stood back up hackles raised in fury. "Why, you –"

The light warrior lunged for Shimmerbreeze and left a wound on the side of her muzzle. This was the first time she had been hurt in battle. This battle had just gotten serious.

She crouched down, her hindlegs ready to spring. She glared at a space next to the tom, trying to get him to think that that was where she intended to strike. It worked.

She shot into the air and, after turning her frame in mid-air, landed on top of her opponent. She extended her claws as far as they would go, and leaped off of the tom, digging her claws into his pelt on the way down. The victim turned around, slashing wildly at Shimmerbreeze until he caught something other than air – Shimmerbreeze's neck.

Shimmerbreeze fell down to the ground, screeching in pangs of discomfort. She glared at the silhouette above her, which had a triumphant gleam in its eyes. " Looks like I've won this match," said the large tom.

Shimmerbreeze, refusing to lose a battle, cocked her head to the side. She reached up her forepaws, claws unsheathed, raked the tom's eye, sending him screeching into the same bush she had led the other she-cat into. A _mrrow_ of laughter once again left her mouth.

She turned her head to Smokefeather, whom was battling with a ginger she-cat several tail-lengths away. She sighed, got up, and began limping towards their battle. Upon reaching them, she pounced on the RiverClan warrior, voicing a vicious snarl before biting into her scruff, hard. When she thought she had given enough pain to her without killing the she-cat, she loosened her grip and let the warrior scurry off to her home. Shimmerbreeze then collapsed on the ground, her vision fading.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shimmerbreeze's eyes fluttered open. Her scruff stung with pain, and when she looked up, she saw that Smokefeather was carrying her towards the ThunderClan camp.

She moaned in agony as they reached the top of the ravine. He loosened his hold a little, and alerted their Clanmates of her arrival. Wolfclaw and Leaplegs flew through the gorse bush, hovering over Shimmerbreeze. "What did you do to her?" Wolfclaw meowed harshly.

Smokefeather took a defensive role, and quickly replied, "Nothing. That I did, anyways. Just get Oakshade and tell him that she's coming!"

Wolfclaw looked as if he was about to spring at Smokefeather, but then gave one glance at Shimmerbreeze and ran back into the camp.

Leaplegs crouched under Shimmerbreeze, stood back up, and walked into the camp with her body dangling weakly over his small frame. He immediately headed for the fern tunnel that led towards the medicine den. She was laid onto a mossy nest with supports made of bracken.

"What happened?" Oakshade asked Shimmerbreeze. He rested his muzzle over her wounds, sniffing for traces of infection.

Shimmerbreeze's eyes gradually grew wider, adjusting to being conscious again. "Smo – Smokefeather and I were swimming at the river when we encountered a RiverClan patrol. I fought hard, but, I received my first battle wounds." Oakshade's eyes flew open, surprised that some cat had actually been fast enough to damage her.

"Okay," he murmured. "Horsetail to stop the bleeding, comfrey to soothe it, and goldenrod to heal it." Oakshade squeezed into a split rock, and pulled out a tall plant with bright yellow flowers, fat, black roots, and a tall, bristly stemmed plant. He chewed them all to a poultice, and applied them to the wound on her muzzle and neck, then wrapped a cobweb around each injury. "You should lay off vigorous warrior duties for a day or two, to let the mixtures set in. Make sure to take some walks in the forest so the wounds get fresh air." Shimmerbreeze nodded and slid out of the moss nest.

As she padded out into the clearing, she noticed it was only sunhigh – the whole Clan had much more responsibilities to attend to. Shimmerbreeze did not want to be a pain in the tail to the Clan – she should carry her own weight, with or without an injury.

But right know she was starving.

…

After finishing her delightful thrush, which she had shared with Amberfern, her best friend, she trotted over to the apprentices' den entrance. "Cheetahpaw!" she meowed to her pupil.

"Yes, Shimmerbreeze?" mewed a young golden she-cat with spots all over her body. Cheetahpaw steeped out into the clearing, next to Shimmerbreeze.

"Would you like to go hunt?"

"Sure!" Cheetahpaw mewed happily.

Shimmerbreeze's eyes sparkled with happiness. Nothing was better than having a joyful apprentice.

Cheetahpaw bounded through the gorse barrier and up the ravine, only stopping to ask Shimmerbreeze where they would be hunting. Shimmerbreeze had replied, "The Great Sycamore. Then we'll keep watch along the ShadowClan border. That way we can do a border patrol and a hunting patrol."

Shimmerbreeze and her obedient apprentice raced to The Great Sycamore. Cheetahpaw was the fastest of the young cats, that's why she was named Cheetahkit, but Shimmerbreeze could go faster. The light wind from the direction of RiverClan carried the smell of fish, which, up to till this sunup, she had never had a taste for before.

She thought of the salmon she had excellently caught, and how those RiverClan fishfaces had been as mouse-brained as to of stopped Shimmerbreeze from rightfully bringing it back to ThunderClan. The river wasn't technically _territory_, so there was no harm in taking a measly fish.

Before Shimmerbreeze had enough time to think more about the situation, her legs had already carried her to The Great Sycamore. She glanced behind her to find that Cheetahpaw had arrived as well, and was already stalking a squirrel near the base of the tree.

Shimmerbreeze opened her mouth, tasting the air for the scent of prey. She could smell a very stale trace of fox and dog, but then nothing else. She decided to taste the air again, a few fox-lengths from where she was before. _Vole!_

She dropped into her hunter's crouch, and began creeping up on the creature. Her tail slithered like a snake silently on the ground. She remained still again, since she had gotten to a good place to spring onto the prey.

Resting her weight on her hindlegs, she prepared for the killing landing. She leapt onto the vole and made a quick nip to the vole's neck. She buried her catch to move onto the next piece of prey she could find.

Scouting around, Shimmerbreeze searched for Cheetahpaw, not calling her name in case she was in pursuit of prey. _There!_ She was chasing a squirrel that had escaped her stalking. She climbed up the sycamore tree and killed the prey, startled by Cheetahpaw's ability to follow her up the tree. "Well done," Shimmerbreeze congratulated her student.

"Thank you," Cheetahpaw mewed respectfully.

…

Shimmerbreeze and Cheetahpaw had hunted along the Thunderpath. Cheetahpaw had caught a thrush and two squirrels, while Shimmerbreeze had made a more remarkable catch. Two voles, a squirrel, and three mice. All were hanging by their tails in Shimmerbreeze's jaws, all barely able to fit.

They were almost at Fourtrees and ready to head back, but Cheetahpaw had wanted to hunt one final squirrel. She was crouching on her haunches, ready to pounce on the squirrel. As soon as her paws left the ground, the squirrel Shimmerbreeze's apprentice was stalking ran across the Thunderpath.

Cheetahpaw had stopped momentarily, but then foolishly raced across the Thunderpath to get the prey. "Cheetahpaw!" Shimmerbreeze yowled. Cheetahpaw halted in the middle of Thunderpath, looking back for a heartbeat. She then charged on and reached the ShadowClan border and the squirrel. She gave the squirrel a fierce bite on the neck. Then secured the catch in her teeth.

"What are you doing? Get off of our territory!" meowed a strong voice from the ShadowClan side of the Thunderpath.

Cheetahpaw yowled in terror and ran to the ThunderClan border once again. The acrid smell had lingered on her pelt.

"It came from _our _side of the border, so what does it – "Shimmerbreeze glanced up from licking her apprentice's coat. She stared in awe at the fierce looking warrior across the border. His dark pelt gave an edge to his powerful blue eyes. _Why didn't we have warriors like this in ThunderClan?_ She thought.

"Well?" the warrior's voice sounded softer than it had been, too.

"I – I'm sorry. My apprentice was chasing a squirrel," she glared down at Cheetahpaw, "And should have been more careful about the Clan boundaries." She looked at the warrior once again with her gentle blue eyes. She was sure to lick her chest fur delicately in front of him, in a way that made the toms in her Clan go wild.

_What am I doing?!_ _He is from a different Clan!_

"Just make sure it doesn't happen again," he added, before turning and padding off into the ShadowClan pine trees.

Shimmerbreeze, still mooning over the warrior, turned back towards camp with her jaws full of prey and Cheetahpaw at her flank.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Moonrise came quickly. It had been a quarter moon since the "Thunderpath incident."

Shimmerbreeze longed to be running through the forest towards ShadowClan territory, to beg them to accept her. To collapse into relaxation with that tom. But she knew she just couldn't do that to her Clan.

Her thoughts slowing, Shimmerbreeze gave into the comfortable depths of sleep. But she was not welcomed by her ordinary dreams of chasing butterflies. No, she was greeted by StarClan.

Their ranks had landed around her, coming from Silverpelt. Their pelts shimmered with the power of all of the stars, flaming with white fire. "You may see him once," meowed the ranks of StarClan. They spoke as one, their voices sending a shiver throughout Shimmerbreeze's body.

The dream left as swift as it had come. Looking up through the tiny holes in the warriors den's roof of bracken, she saw that it was moonhigh. After several heartbeats of grooming herself, Shimmerbreeze stood up carefully. She rested her paws in specific places so as not to wake her Clanmates.

As she exited her den, she realized that Maplewhisker was guarding the camp entrance. _Foxdung!_

She made her way to the Dirtplace tunnel, and, silently, ambled her way through the disgusting dirt of her Clanmates. _Yuck! _She really loved this tom to be wading through such filth!

Realizing she now smelled fresh air, Shimmerbreeze ran towards the Thunderpath. _Maybe he would be there! Maybe he had the same dream!_

The acrid, familiar odor of the pathway for the monsters made home in Shimmerbreeze's mouth. She sauntered towards the foul-smelling Thunderpath, searching for a sign of the dark tom. _Did she see a tail twitching on the far side?_

"Is that you?" she mewed softly.

She did not hear a reply, but a heartbeat later, a shadowy figure came wiggling out of the Thunderpath tunnel. "Come over here!" the form whispered.

Shimmerbreeze excitedly squeezed into the tunnel, which, she realized, was much more spacious than she had thought. "You came!" she squealed happily. Her eyes sparkled with joy.

"StarClan approved of this meeting – but, honestly, I would have come either way," the tom meowed. "My name is Blackshade. What's yours?"

"Shimmerbreeze. So… What's it like, living in ShadowClan?" she mewed awkwardly. Something about talking to a tom outside of her Clan made her feel weird. But she still felt giddy about it, and continued.

"It's pretty cool – the other Clans fear us, which makes us less threatened." The tom quickly added, realizing what he had said, "But, I do admire ThunderClan."

"Yeah, great save, there, Blackshade!" she mewed mischeviously. "ThunderClan is great as well. We've got lots of undergrowth, so it's easy to stalk prey."

"Don't you cats climb trees, too? I thought ThunderClan cats climbed trees," Blackshade inquired.

Shimmerbreeze looked up nervously. "Some do," she murmured.

"Wait a minute – you can't climb a tree?" Blackshade let out a _mrrow _of laughter. "Only RiverClan and WindClan cats can't climb trees."

"Not all cats have to climb trees to fight or hunt!" she meowed defensively.

Blackshade's whiskers twitched. "Most do!"

"Anyways," she mewed, changing the subject, "What can't _you_ do?"

"Well, I guess I can't swim, but – why would I need to swim, anyways? It's not like I have a river to swim across, like RiverClan."

"_I _can swim," she boasted.

"Great, so you can join RiverClan, someday," Blackshade inserted.

"Oh, shut up!" she mewed good-naturedly. Shimmerbreeze glared out of the tunnel and into the sky. "We should get some sleep before sunup." She nuzzled into Blackshade's pelt, his warmth searing through her like a gentle ray of light.

…

The sun was high up in the sky by the time Shimmerbreeze awoke from her gentle sleep with the dark tom cat. She opened her eyes groggily, and turned to Blackshade.

Shimmerbreeze turned over, and prodded her companion gently with her forepaw. "I-I think we have to leave before our Clans notice we were missing," she mewed.

The black cat rolled over to face her, and began to rise to his paws. "I think you're right," he meowed solemnly. Neither seemed to want to leave, but Shimmerbreeze knew they had to.

"May we meet again tomorrow? Or.. the day after?" she pleaded. The thought of never seeing Blackshade again… she couldn't think about it.

"Of course," he mewed. Shimmerbreeze's pelt tingled with excitement for their next meeting.

"Well, we must be going. Goodbye, Blackshade."

"To you as well, Shimmerbreeze."

She turned tail and padded up into the trees and undergrowth of ThunderClan, catching a quick glance back at the strong ShadowClan warrior.


End file.
